Month: July 2021

What Did Bob Iger Know About COVID19 & How Did He Know It?


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’m just being silly witih this one. But it definitely seems as though former Disney CEO Bob Iger somehow, someway knew way, way in advance how badly COVID19 was going to hurt the company’s balance sheet.

Mandatory Credit: Photo by Invision/AP/REX/Shutterstock (9241938da) The Walt Disney Company CEO Robert Iger attends a special screening of Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast” at Alice Tully Hall, in New York NY Special Screening of “Beauty and the Beast”, New York, USA – 13 Mar 2017

Months before anyone in the United States cared about COVI19 — even before it was called COVID19 — Iger just up and bounced while on top at Disney. Just out of the blue. The only reason why any of this matters to me is it gives one some of the metrics for the next time Something Big like COVID19 happens.

If another pandemic (or whatever) begins to brew in some remote part of the world, keep an eye on people like Iger. If they start acting really weird, then batten down the catches, the shit is about to hit the fan. If I was into conspiracy theories — which I’m not — I might suggest there was something spooky about Iger bouncing so abruptly.

I’m fascinated by how our reality is constructed. That’s why people like Trump or macro events like COVID19 lay bare that a lot of our “reality” is bullshit. It exists because The Powers That Be say it does.

Nothing’s right or wrong, but thinking makes it so, as The Bard would tell us.

Mulling My Personal Delusions About My Potential Success In LA Should I Move There


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I daydream a lot. A whole lot. And one of the things I daydream a lot about besides all the stories about robots, zombie robots and space aliens is how successful I would be if I moved to LA.

One the surface, there is a credible case that I could do really well in LA. I’m a natural extrovert and I tend to become larger than life when liquored up. Being around a crowd of people like one might find at a cocktail party is like emotional meth for me — I’m an extreme social butterfly. At least, I was when I was in Seoul many moons a go. I’m older now, so who knows. (But I’m young at heart, wink.)

As such, if I could somehow overcome the basics — I don’t live in LA, I’m broke and I have no showbiz contacts in town — if I was somehow able to weasel my way into a LA cocktail party everyone would know who I was by the time I left. And, usually, in such situations when I’m drunk and surrounded by a lot of interesting people, I can grow so colorful and larger-than-life that I draw a lot of attention to myself.

So, in my deranged, hyper-deluded mind, I could see a situation where some Hollywood bigwig would notice me at a cocktail party and want to know, “Who is that guy?”

Those few times I’ve been to New York City, it definitely seemed like a city where the metric is NOT who you know, but what you know. In LA, meanwhile, you just never know if some broke-ass writer might be on the cusp of writing a breakout screenplay. (Though the old adage about, “Don’t fuck the writer” is very, very true.)

Of course, there is the huge issue of my age. If I was 20 years younger, then all my LA dreams would be a lot more likely to come true. But, now, oh boy. The only way I would have any chance of success is if I moved to LA full time and had three or four solid screenplays already written and ready to go.

Right now, I got squat.

Anyway. Dreaming is free.

The Agony & The Ecstasy Of Wanting Final Draft


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I want to buy the screenwriting program Final Draft, but there are two things holding me back. One, I’m broke as hell and it’s extremely expensive. Two, if I’m going to spend that much money on it, I’d like to actually use it right away.

So, as such, I know that actually buying Final Draft would be the end of the beginning of any effort to actually write screenplay. I must have at least a dozen solid screenplay concepts rolling around my head at the moment. And, yet, I’m throwing all my creativity at the four novel series I’m working on and I just don’t feel like distracting myself.

And it’s not like I live in LA — any screenplays I write would have to be done knowing full well that they are meant to be pure creativity (at least at first.) I would much rather use all my creative time and energy working on the series I’ve been working on for years now, rather than risk getting distracted and having to start at blow zero working on screenplays.

But, having said all that, occasionally I do grow restless. Sometimes, I feel like just picking a completely different creative direction for the sheer joy of it and see what happens. For the last few years, however, this lasts for a few minutes and then I put my head down and keep working on the novel(s.)

I guess it’s possible that I might sketch out some screenplays in the near future. But I’m going to be on the cusp of actually writing a screenplay if I buy Final Draft. I need to start reading screenplays if I’m going to get anywhere near that stage, however.

MAGA New Right Republicans Are Craven, Not Dumb


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

One of my political pet peeves of late is how so many people on Twitter are quick to jump on this or that ostensibly “dumb” comment on the part of some MAGA New Right thought leader. Most of the time, these guys aren’t dumb at all — they’re fucking craven.

Here’s what the populists with pitchforks of Twitter miss: a lot of the “dumb” comments coming from MAGA New Right thought leaders are directed towards the base. These “thought leaders” often say things that to everyone outside their core of support seems extremely stupid — Sen. Blackburn picking a fight with Tay-Tay, for instance. Or Sen. Blackburn saying “cancel culture should be outlawed.”

It sounds very, very dumb.

But it’s not — it’s craven.

MAGA New Right thought leaders are so fucking craven that they’re willing to come across as complete idiots as long as they can goad the intended audience of their “stupid” comments — their very receptive base — into voting. Also, remember, a lot of these allegedly “stupid” MAGA New Right thought leaders are extremely well educated. They KNOW that just by being who they are that they’re going to take a pounding on social media (or, at least, Twitter.)

So, they embrace and extend this idea by tweeting stupid shit for the base, which loves it, knowing that the nattering nabobs of liberal negativism will quote-tweet whatever it is they said, amplifying the message. J.D. Vance is growing to notorious for pulling such stupid stunts.

But this is just a pet peeve. It’s not like anyone listens to me, anyway. People on Twitter are going to keep falling for this ploy on the part of the “stupid” MAGA New Right.

‘Republican Secession Scenarios’


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Since someone searched for that and found this blog, I will write about it. One thing is clear — Republicans have been such a steady flow of bullshit that they are primed and ready for a secession crisis should it ever occur.

But there would need to be a catalyst, something to spark MAGA state legistatures to begin to call secession conventions. I just don’t believe Republicans have it in them to rise up and start murdering liberals en mass. They’re all talk — or frustration. Trump is a coward and a joke when it comes such shit and even if he went transactional for some reason, he’s such a pantywaist that he would hide behind the “it’s not my fault” defense. He wouldn’t own any secession and run with it. (At least, not at first, unless it got some traction.)

Yet, as a I keep writing, there are a wide array of potential secession scenarios facing us. Most of them don’t really apply to 2021 but rather the 2024-2025 timeframe. In a sense, if there was a secession crisis now it would be a win for the forces of democracy because The Good Guys would control the military and it would be pretty clear for their to be a media narrative for the broader public as to what should happen.

It’s when you have the very murky situation surrounding a potential Congressional certification fight that all hell could break loose because it would be difficult for their to be any sort of clear understanding of who was in the right. (Which would be the whole point of MAGA balking at certifying a Biden win in the first place.)

The only secession crisis I can think up that would happen in 2021 would have something to do with Cyber Ninjas in Arizona “proving” that Trump “won” the state and that sets of a series of events whereby Trump goes transactional and MAGA states start to leave the Union immediately.

So, in general, unless something really unexpected happens, we should be ok until late 2024 and early 2025. Then, we’ll either have a civil war or turn into an autocracy.

The Death Of Cable Channels


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Why, at this point, do cable channels even exist? It would make a lot of sense if the industry collectively gave up and disrupted itself by ending traditional cable channels altogether.

The future is streaming and the cable content is wasting everyone’s time by not getting with the future and making a clean break with the past. But there’s still too much money left in the rotting corpse of traditional cable, so, lulz, this will never happen.

It will be interesting to see what happens when we skip the MX (AR / VR) step and go straight to $1,2000 Mindcaps.

An Old Struggles To Understand Bella Poarch’s Tik-Tok Superstardom


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’m an old and I use Tik-Tok all the time. One of the mysteries of the service is why some people become superstars. One of the really surreal Tik-Tok stars is Bella Poarch.

Why is this woman famous?

She’s an attractive, apparently personable person who can sing.

But exactly why she, of all people, is so popular on the service is something of a mystery to me. She doesn’t really do anything. She has a very expressive face? She’s a hot brunette? She taps into the browning of America?

If you wanted to get all conspiratorial about it, you could say that Tik-Tok is now in the business of making Gen Z stars out of whole cloth through the manipulation of its famous “algorithms.” I only suggest this because a number of other Tik-Tok insta-stars have mysteriously faded of late.

That’s definitely a scenario ripe for being turned into a novel or movie — the personal consequences when a Gen Z’s stardom mysteriously fades when their video app moves on and they don’t. I guess that sounds more like a Black Mirror episode.

I Have To Stop Overthinking This Series


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

So, I’ve gotten to the point where I’m working on four novels in a series simultaneously. Things are going really, really well. But I still have the same old problem of overthinking things so much that I throw everything out what feels like every few days.

Some of my problems come from I have a few scenes I love so much I’m willing to fight for, which adds significant complications to the overall project. But none of the problems I’m having compare to the three year struggle to get some favorite set pieces to make sense in what is now the third book in a four book series.

Now, THAT was a sharp learning curve.

But I’m ok now. I just need to do a lot — A LOT — of reading and to figure out how to stop being so hard on myself. I understand why people might hate on me if they’re paying attention — I mean, I haven’t even finished one novel and now I’m working on four.

And, yet, what happened was, once I kind of figured out the novel I was working on for so long, I realized I needed a break. I was creatively exhausted. So what I’m doing now allows me to recharge my batteries while staying in-universe.

Anyway, I really need to speed up.

‘the next civil war in America 2021’


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Apparently, within some MAGA New Right circles, there is a lot of mental energy being put into the idea that there is either going to be a violent national MAGA revolution by the end of the year, or a similar-type civil war. This blog is about as unread as you can get, and what little traffic there is now is almost exclusively from people obviously on the exact opposite end of the political spectrum form me obsessing about the exact details of a civil war or MAGA revolution this year.

There are a few ways I can imagine a civil war happening. The chief one would be the Cyber Ninjas bullshit in Arizona causes some sort of nullification crisis that turns into a secession crisis that turns into a civil war. But the only way I can imagine any sort of “violent populist MAGA New Right revolution” happening is if Trump pulled a Scalia on us and shuffled off this mortal coil peacefully in his sleep — and the MAGA ammosexuals don’t believe it and start running around, murdering people in the name of their martyred, bonkers dipshit hero.

So, it’s at least possible that there might be a civil war in 2021, but it grows less and less likely. If we can get pass August, I think we’re ok. I’m even less willing to believe this year will see any sort of violent MAGA New Right overthrow of the government.

But, I get, the people who want a violent MAGA revolution “just want to be left alone” and, as such, they want to murder people for their politics.

Damn, The MAGA New Right Definitely Has Violent Revolution On The Brain


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

In my never-ending quest to make my abstract fears about a civil war or autocracy coming to the United States concrete, I do a lot of hysterical, dystopian writing about the likelihood of either one of those things happening in the near future.

The lit thing is my Webstats indicate that out there in the aether a shit tone of MAGA New Right people are thinking about a violent MAGA revolution of some sort. Like it happening RIGHT NOW.

This is very aggravating because I write a lot about the prospect of a civil war, but a MAGA revolution is a different matter altogether. Apparently deep in the bowels of Trumplandia, a lot of MAGA New Right cocksuckers have a vague, abstract belief that they’re all going to collectively rise up and overthrow the Biden Administration.

Put up or shut up, is all I gotta say.

While I can easily imagine a Cyber Ninjas induced nullification crisis becoming a secession crisis that leads to civil war, even I struggle with the notion that MAGA is going to go full Turner Diaries and violently overthrow the government on a populist level. It really makes you wonder what’s rolling around the minds of MAGA New Right people — are they that scared of the browning of America that they think, on an abstract basis, the United States is about to have a violent fascist revolution? What the what?

I guess what is happening is the abstract fears that led to Trump in the first place have been taken to the next level — now MAGA New Right people have an abstract belief that MAGA is going to overthrow the government, that MAGA is going to “take matters into its own hands” and do what the “swamp” in D.C is unable or unwilling to do. Ugh.

All I know is a lot of the people involved in the January 6th insurrection turned out to be a bunch of cry babies. You can have all the guns you like, you bunch of fucking racist MAGA cocksuckers, but if you’re a fucking coward then that’s not going to do you much good.

Anyway, MAGA having violent revolution on the brain is not a great development. It does lend some credence to my belief that The Dead Hand of History is now in charge and the United States is fuuuuuuuuuuuucked.

Goodluck. Get a passport.